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As women’s health takes center stage for the first time in��history, Leeds alumni and students see massive potential in this��subsector's future.

Ten years ago, “menopause” wasn’t mentioned in mixed company. There weren’t conversations at the water cooler about infertility. Women didn’t ask their doctors about pelvic health.

At work, you’d have been shocked to find perimenopause support, fertility care and maternity benefits offered by the largest employers in the U.S.

That’s because historically, the health-care industry has largely overlooked the complex biology of women, leaving them to struggle with the underdiagnosis of medical conditions, untrained doctors, fragmentation of care and inadequate representation in clinical trials.

But within the last decade, technological advances and evolving societal attitudes toward women’s health have started shifting the paradigm:��The medical community is recognizing women’s health needs, employers are offering more benefits, and investors are��realizing the vast potential in women’s health innovation.

What is FemTech?

The gradual awakening to inequities in health care has spawned a sector of technology designed to address health issues suffered solely, differently or disproportionately by women—from menstrual tracking apps and sexual wellness products to cardiovascular medical devices and mental health therapies.

The term “FemTech” has been around since 2016, when the co-founder of one of the first period-tracking apps, Ida Tin, coined it. She wanted a way to encapsulate technology-driven solutions in the women’s health space, including products, diagnostics, medical devices, digital therapies, consumer applications and services.

Leeds graduate Kristin Apple (MBA’08), president of an innovation strategy consultancy called LINUS, focused on helping health organizations grow, takes issue��with the term “FemTech.” She explained that the industry is much more than technological products and services—it’s about women’s health.

“All health care today is enabled by technology—that’s a given. It’s not about the technology; it’s about how tech is enabling us to get better results by gaining insights into the diagnosis and treatment of conditions that affect a women’s physical and emotional well-being.”

She pointed out that the 2023 initiative passed by the Biden administration to increase research on women’s health is an example of the movement toward acknowledging the need for health care tailored to women.

“This is about the growth and destigmatization of women’s health. It’s about the broader picture of women’s health,” she said.

Opportunities and obstacles

Today, the FemTech market has an estimated value of $50 to $60 billion. By 2027, it is estimated to be worth $1 trillion, according to forecasts by the nonprofit organization FemTech Focus.

A 2022 study by McKinsey’s Health-care Systems & Services Practice revealed what the estimates show: that the women’s health sector is growing at an incredible rate. Public awareness, company formation and funding are surging. The opportunities for��multiple stakeholders, including investors, researchers, health care providers, employers, insurers, and pharmaceutical and medical-device companies are undeniable.

Entrepreneurs are seizing these opportunities in droves. More than 60% of FemTech startups were founded between 2017 and 2022, and there has been a 1,000% increase in the number of companies over the last 10 years, according to FemHealth Insights research.

Eighty percent of those startups were founded by women. However, many have met obstacles in gaining funding—a well-known discrepancy in the startup world. A study in 2022 showed that women entrepreneurs are 63% less likely to get VC funding than men (PitchBook).

Another challenge is that investors in tech are mostly men, and for some, there’s a lack of knowledge or comfort in understanding women’s biology—and stigmas still abound.

The seers and believers

Nonetheless, it’s hard to dispute that the market potential is huge; FemTech is an underserved market that’s ripe for growth and investment. As a demographic, women spend an estimated $500 billion a year on medical expenses (PitchBook). Modern technologies for this population are not only transformative but lucrative.

A growing syndicate of venture capitalists, made up mostly of women, are making a substantial impact in the space. And the next generation of FemTech investors is gearing up to do the same.

��“I think people are beginning to see the power of investing in FemTech and it’s really exciting.”

Gwyneth Brass (Ent, Fin’26)

Zoe Cope, a Leeds sophomore studying finance and accounting, has been interested in FemTech since high school, when she and her friends started using the menstrual tracking app Flo. She explained that it gave them a sense of control through knowledge.

As a Leeds Scholar and member of the Business and Engineering Women in Tech (BEWiT) program, she fine-tuned her vision for making an impact. “I see myself as contributing to the industry through working in��finance.

“Women are solving issues for��women that health care providers have ignored,” said Cope. “That’s why I want to enter private markets—to improve the lives of many through investments.”

Cope has an idea of where to start: “FemTech is being driven by female entrepreneurs—but funding doesn’t come easily for them—we need to see female entrepreneurs dominate this market.”

Birth of the first unicorn

Worth about $1.35 billion and widely considered the first U.S. unicorn dedicated to women’s and family health, according to Fortune, Maven Clinic is the world’s largest virtual clinic that serves some of the biggest employers, including Microsoft and AT&T.

Its founder, CEO Kate Ryder, not only convinced employers to provide better benefits for women, but she helped prove to investors that women’s health had massive potential as a business. To make her point, she argued that the lack of medical attention to menopause was not only harmful to women but was a lost opportunity worth $600 billion.

Angie Golden Henry (Mktg’11) is a Leeds alum and senior brand designer at Maven. “I’m energized by the opportunity to build a brand that users can trust and the challenge for our brand to stand out among very established health care brands.”

When she first started in 2018, she noted there were few tech companies focused on women’s health care. “When I came across Maven, their entire product and mission felt very unique and important, and I wanted to be a part of it,” she said. “Seeing the product make such an impact on users is incredibly rewarding.”

Having recently had her first baby, she has a new appreciation and inspiration for the work she’s doing. “The health care system in America can be so hard to navigate, especially when building a family, and companies like Maven make health care more accessible and work better for more people,” she said.

Better health means better growth

A wave of inventive companies has emerged to address menopause, IVF, endometriosis, fertility, hormone health, childbirth, osteoporosis, cancer diagnosis and more.

As women’s health improves, so does the sector’s success. The following companies are rolling out life-changing innovations that dramatically improve women’s health outcomes and propel the industry forward.

• NextGen Jane, a company that uses tampons to tell women about their reproductive health, recently raised $9 million in new funding.
• London-based Elvie, a wearable breast pump and a pelvic exercise trainer and app, raised $42 million in Series B funding.
• Midi Health, a virtual health care provider for perimenopause and menopause, reported that 91% of its patients experienced improvement in their symptoms after just two months of care. The company successfully raised $60 million in a Series B funding round this year, increasing the company’s total funding to $100 million.
• Oula, a modern maternity clinic combining obstetrics and midwifery, boasts a 26% better C-section rate and a 61% lower preterm birth rate than New York City benchmarks. It has raised more than $50 million in funding.
• Progyny, which manages fertility benefits for employers, went public in 2019 at a valuation of over $1 billion; its recent market capitalization was about $4 billion.

“This is about��the growth and��destigmatization of��women’s health.”

Kristin Apple (MBA’08), President, LINUS

When women succeed economies flourish

Nurturing innovation within the FemTech space doesn’t help just women and investors—it has the potential to help the world. According to the nonprofit Women’s Health Access Matters, a $300 million investment into improving women’s health could generate around $13 billion for the global economy.

It also helps improve global productivity. When women leave the workforce at the peak of their careers due to the side effects of perimenopause and menopause—global productivity losses can add up to more than $150 billion a year (Ultra Violet Futures). But deploying technological and consumer-centric health solutions can enable the success of women leaders and companies.

The impact on global economies, especially those in poor countries, has not escaped Cope, who explained, “When��women have more freedom over their reproductive cycle, they’re able to extend their education and have careers, allowing them to be more successful. This will eventually and inevitably lead to economic progress in third-world countries.”

When countries empower women to feel better and live longer, their economic potential soars. That’s because women are not just consumers but the primary health care decision-makers for their families; better health outcomes for women can lead to better outcomes for society.

A glimpse of the future

As women-led companies grow and consumer demand for personalized health solutions rises, a more inclusive, gender-aware health care system could help the next generation of women become inventors and founders.

Take Gwenyth Brass (Ent, Fin’26), a junior in entrepreneurship and finance at Leeds. When she learned that women generally have low expectations of the health care system, she wanted to find a way to make women more comfortable—starting with gynecologist visits.

“Women aren’t fully empowered and informed; they need to know how the procedures work. And there needs to be more trust between women and doctors,” said Brass. “It involves transparency and getting to know who the doctor is as a person.”

This past summer, she began developing her idea with fellow students in her New Venture Class and was surprised to learn that “most of the men had no idea about the anxiety of going to the gynecologist.” Like other founders before her, she successfully helped them understand a problem they had never personally dealt with.

“Male investors are getting their heads turned by the impact. I think people are beginning to see the power of investing in FemTech, and it’s really exciting . . . It’s time for a change to improve women’s lives.”